Budget report. Governor Hochul says it's finished. Vote tomorrow.

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning. What’s going on in Albany? Is there a deal? How much is it gonna cost the New Yorkers? Is New York going to survive as the Empire city? Well with us today is star reporter from New York Post for Aubany. We have Zach Williams, and Zach give us a briefing. What the heck is going on? Well, the newspapers,

0:22 everybody says a deal is done. What do you know? What do you hear?

0:29 Speaker 2 Well? The governor surprised everybody by announcing a two hundred and twenty nine billion dollars budget deal on Thursday night, you know, after state lawmakers had left the capital for the week, and you know there’s a lot there. She secured changes to bail reform, there’s a raised in the minimum wage. There are new new ban on new gas

0:52 hookups in new buildings that will begin at the beginning of twenty twenty six. So it’s been in. All of this comes after weeks of her time negotiations between the governor and all theny Democrats to control the state Senate and Assembly, and you know, we’re all just kind of absorbing it. Now we don’t have budget bills quite yet,

1:11 expected probably early, either late on Sunday or early in the week. But you know, it’s been a tumultuous budget. He’s in like no other that I’ve seen in my five years in the Capitol, and I think colleagues with longer memories would stay the same.

1:25 Speaker 1 Bail reform, Do you know any additional details on that? Are we going to feel safer walking around our city or state?

1:34 Speaker 2 Well, the governor put it this way when I asked, you know, the the change she secured in the budget was reported actually a couple of weeks back, and basically it will remove for bail eligible offenses a requirement that judges imposed the least restrictive conditions needed to ensure someone shows up in court. What does that mean? Well, first

1:56 we had bail reform and it said that, and then later they made various tweaks that said, well, if somebody has been charged with a new crime, or if they have a record of this or that or this and that, and a lot of judges complained that they were kind of confused. You know, do I go with the tweaks

2:12 or do I go with the original law. The governor pointed that out when I asked, you know, how will mixing the least restricted standard for their multiple offenses, you don’t make New York cares safer. And she put it that way, Now judges will have more clarity on when they can impose bail and when they cannot. But at

2:32 the same time, the governor gave up a different proposal, one that didn’t get many that much attention, but one in which criminal defenders were up in arms about basically a few changed words here and there that would have effectively meant in New York that bail would no longer be solely to ensure someone returns support. That was not

2:53 a low passed in the early nineteen seventies. Vocalist proposing some changes to it, but they ended up abandoning them in negotiations. But she did add one other justification. She pointed out, you know that there have been extring a very high profile since fational crimes involving people who were bail eligible but for whatever reason, were released and then

3:15 went on to be the use of other crimes. So, you know, she pointed out that newspapers, maybe talking about the New York Post a little bit there, you know, have really brought this to the public’s attention time and time again in recent years. And so those are two reasons why she felt that this change was justified and

3:33 wanted to give judges more clarity, and another to kind of just address the broader sense among the public that that crime, after the historic lose, it’s starting to get out of control of it, and you know, getting anything done at all. That just says the chain fail reform was seeming made a standard on that front the government

3:53 wanted to meet, and she met it for what.

3:55 Speaker 1 It’s work well understood. And do have they recognized that so many people half a million people the exodus is they’re out of not paying New York State taxes anymore? And how did they deal with your budget? How much was last year’s budget in comparison to what they just passed?

4:19 Speaker 2 Oh, well, you put me on the spot there. If I remember off the top of my head, it was somewhere around two hundred and twelve billion dollars last year.

4:25 Speaker 1 So they’re going up. They’re going up a lot. They’re going up almost twenty billion dollars. Is there going to be somebody around to pay it?

4:35 Speaker 2 Well, definitely, billions of dollars. I’m going off my head on the last. Yeah, yeah, my number, but something like that definitely higher. And you know, one controversial proposal where Hoko held the line was this push to raise taxes on the wealthy. Now, a lot of folks will will point out that wealthy folks have a lot of money

4:53 after all, But then again, you know, wealthy people pay a disproportion to share a state income taxes and something you raise a team much more and more of them are going to go to lower tech states like Florida.

5:04 So the governor held the line on that. But one other big issue that she brought up, you know, brought to you the table with this affordable housing plan. You know, everyone knows there’s not enough housing in UK City, the suburbs, and even enough states. But you know, housing the tricky political issue, and the governor ran into a wall of

5:23 opposition in the suburbs, particularly, you know in the Assembly where a lot of members you know, face kind of a political choice. On the one hand, you could accede to this proposal that would you know, either that would impose housing targets three percent down state you know every couple of years are going to increase your housing stocks

5:43 by a few percent. But the political price and face. You know, some of these suburbs they like things, that’s the way they are, and they don’t want affordable housing, right or wrong. That is a political consideration from many legislators while they pushed this proposal off the place. So the governor, well.

6:01 Speaker 1 Me and you are old enough to remember to remember why Andy Spanna, who was Westchester County exact, lost the election. Is Was it because President Obama forced the of sexualate housing in the Westchester? Was that goe?

6:19 Speaker 2 It was something along those lines. I mean, there’s a law story of suburban politicians who, either because of taxes or housing or one of other one or any other of these political trip wires, you know, had to pay a price. You know, the suburbs are a tricky political puzzle, and the governor Shure didn’t figure them out this time around.

6:40 She says she’s going to still keep pushing her housing proposals in the weeks that remain in legislative session. Which interesting day, but everyone knows the governor has by far the most leverage in the state budget process, and it’s nearly looks like it’s gonna have to wait till next year to try anything similarly ambitious.

7:00 Speaker 1 Understood what else do you want to tell in New Yorkers, I mean, we you know, we love New York. I’m a New Yorker, I love New York. I love New York City. New York City’s budget, I heard, is going to be one hundred and seven billion, and that one hundred and seven billion is in addition to the two

7:16 hundred and twenty nine.

7:19 Speaker 2 Well, what I would have to say is, you know, while this budget, you know, does address a lot again, two hundred and twenty nine billion dollars, you know, that’s a lot of spending, but housing, public safety, and a few other touchy issues remain open in the weeks that remain in the legislative session. You know, we’ll have to

7:38 see what happens. You know, the legislators are going to have a bit more leverage over the governors than during the budget process. But I envision a couple, you know, a few more weeks of you know, quite a bit of fighting over some of these issues before they leave for the summer in June.

7:55 Speaker 1 Understood, well, Zach, and I pray for our city, I pray for our state, and I pray, you know, we survive.

8:06 Speaker 2 That’s the spirit, and I’ll take it thank thank.

8:10 Speaker 1 You so much, and God bless you, and God bless New York and America. Thank you,